


Guilt

by DeckofDragons



Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [5]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Dadcher, Drabble event fic, Gen, Guilt, Light Angst, Talk of Hat Kid's Past, Talk of adoption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeckofDragons/pseuds/DeckofDragons
Summary: Snatcher feels bad he tried to kill Hat Kid. It takes a bit for him to admit it though.
Relationships: Hat Kid & Snatcher (A Hat in Time)
Series: Celebrating the New Year, New Decade, and 100+ Followers Drabble Event [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599667
Comments: 24
Kudos: 235





	1. Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IscaRedspider](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IscaRedspider/gifts).



> A request from my tumblr drabble event from Iscaredspider on Discord. They asked for Dacher angst; Snatcher feeling bad about trying to kill Hat Kid.

Hat Kid had been gone nearing a full year now. A long time, meaning she was probably gone for good, her promises to come back and visit forgotten. That was fine though, Snatcher didn’t care. Why would he? He was glad she was gone, she’d been a pest, nothing but a thorn in his side. He didn’t miss her _at all_ , not even a little.

He was only thinking about her because he’d pulled out the ‘How to Kill Kids’ book he’d always made sure to have open when she was around in a failed attempt to get a reaction out of her. Maybe she’d somehow known it was a fake title… or couldn’t read the language despite knowing how to speak it, she was an alien after all. He’d only brought it out because... because… why not? It was his book; he could pull it out whenever he pleased and it didn’t mean anything, certainly not that he missed Hat Kid or anything like that. In fact, he was going to…

“Snatcher!” That voice…

He looked up to see Hat Kid strolling up to his reading hollow, balancing on the vine leading to it. She was noticeably a bit taller now, her hair longer too but still tied into a neat ponytail and… still using the bow he’d made for her.

“I’m back,” she said with a wide smile and flourish of her arms as she stepped into the hollow. “Did you miss me?”

“No, course not,” he replied, forcing a sneer to hide how much his mouth wanted to smile for some reason. “Why would you even come back?”

“Because you’re my BFF silly.”

Again with the BFF thing. _Why_? He’d tried to _kill her_. And then he’d put her through the Death Wish contracts. Yes, she’d chosen to do them but… she should _hate him_. He was a bad person and she was a good person; good guys hating bad guys was how things worked for almost everyone else on the planet and presumably the universe because it was the most logical thing. Why was she so different?

“I would’ve come sooner,” she continued. “But uh…” the joy fell from her face, replaced with sorrow. “Stuff happened that delayed me. But that’s okay,” and suddenly she was all smiles again. “I’m here now. How have you been?”

Should Snatcher ask her what had delayed her and why thinking about it had brought _that_ look to her face? He wanted to know _purely_ for the sake of curiosity, not because he cared. If he asked though, she probably would assume he did so… he’d ask later, pretend it was an afterthought. “It’s been quiet around here with you gone.” Too quiet. “It’s been nice but now unfortunately you’re back.”

“Yeah, I’m sure, you’re _real_ upset about that huh?” She giggled. “You can’t fool me, I know you missed me because even if you won’t admit even to yourself I know you _care_.”

“Kid, I tried to kill you more than once. What part of that says I care even a little?”

“A lot of those challenges weren’t you trying to kill me though, just challenge me. _And_ if you were really trying to kill me with them, you wouldn’t have given me the option to not do them. And when you were trying to kill me for real it was because that’s what you do with all your contractors. If that wasn’t the standard you’d already set yourself, you probably wouldn’t have even done that, am I right?”

“Even if that _was_ true,” and _maybe_ looking back on it was, though Snatcher wasn’t going to tell her that, “that still doesn’t explain why you insist on bothering me so much. _Most_ people hate people who tried to kill them, regardless of their reasons for doing it.”

“Well, I don’t.” Hat Kid shrugged. “Almost everyone I know has tried to kill me at least once or at the very least put me in a situation where I could easily die and didn’t care if I did. So, if I lived life by that standard, I’d hate everybody and that’s no fun.”

Welp, that just made it worse. Was Snatcher really just among a long list of people who’d tried to kill her? … Mustache Girl had, DJ Grooves had, without even counting the Death Wish contract, the Conductor had almost blown his train up with her on it, the Empress had and… that was _almost_ everyone she interacted with in a major way from this planet. The only one who hadn’t put her in danger or outright tried to murder her was the Walrus Captain. Hat Kid was just a _child_ , what was _wrong_ with all them? Snatcher had at least had had an excuse… right? Sort of anyway? … Maybe.

“What about your parents?” he asked, pushing aside those thoughts.

Hat Kid moved forward to sit on the footstool and look up at him. “I don’t have any.”

“Meaning, you’re… an orphan?” Making the whole trying to kill her thing that much worse because who went around murdering orphans?

“Maybe, I guess. I don’t really know if they’re dead or just abandoned me to the school for whatever reason. I don’t care either because I have a spaceship.” She smiled proudly. “I get to visit other planets. It’s fun even if very few people actually like me. A lot of the people I meet always either want me dead because they want my Time Pieces or want to capture me so they can study me because I’m an alien. Sometimes they want to do both so they can dissect me.”

Every word out of her mouth even if they were spoken in a nonchalant tone just made Snatcher feel worse for her. Surely, she was exaggerating though. It couldn’t _really_ be that bad, right? “You said something about a school, what about the teachers and principle?” Presumably the people who’d taught her how to fly a spaceship. Teaching such things to a child was questionable at best but… “Surely they take care of you, right? They’ve never tried to kill you or anything like that.” She _had_ to have an authority figure in her life _somewhere_ that cared for her.

“Uh… I really shouldn’t tell you about them, it’s against the rules. _But_ you’re my BFF and the rule is specifically not to tell intelligent _life_ forms this stuff but you’re dead so it’s _technically_ not a violation of the rule.” Loopholes were great, weren’t they? “So… no they haven’t tried to kill me. But some of their tests are pretty dangerous because being a space pilot can be super dangerous so you gotta be prepared. I don’t know for sure if anyone’s died during them, though there are tons of rumors about it happening so it probably happens sometimes. And one guy I know got maimed during a test somehow and failed because of it. I don’t know the details because he got kicked out for it so I never saw him again. Heck, maybe he died and that’s a lie they told us.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s a huge lawsuit waiting to happen.” The fact that no one had sued the school out of business yet was a miracle. “They’re going to get _sued_ into the ground, just you wait.” Everyone would be better off when it finally happened too. Snatcher would do it himself just for fun if he could.

Hat Kid shrugged. “Hmm… I guess, I don’t know. But my point was, I’m not upset you tried to kill me because I’m used to it.” And that just made it worse. “So, you don’t feel bad either, okay?” She smiled up at him, way too cute and innocent.

All right _fine_ , Snatcher felt bad about trying to kill her. After hearing more about her life than he wanted to know, how could he not? He had before too though, hadn’t he? But only a little bit. But this is why he hated children. It was far too easy to grow a soft spot for them and then have stupid emotions and gross feelings like this. They were worse than cats because cats at least had the decency to not have the same depth of emotion, intelligence, and understanding that children did. And now he had to apologize, didn’t he? Because he done a _bad_ thing to someone he… – _ugh_ – cared about, and felt _bad_ about it. So…

“No, kiddo… ugh, I apologize, okay? I didn’t know you’re an orphan and I didn’t know any of that other stuff about how awful people tend to treat you. So, stop looking at me like that, it makes me uncomfortable.”

She blinked up at him. “Did you just…” A smile spread across her face, “ _apologize_? Are you actually admitting you _care_? At least enough to apologize anyway.”

His instinct was to say ‘no’ but… he kind of had just admitted it, hadn’t he? And… the reason she was so excited about that prospect was… because based off what she just told him, not many people cared about her, right? So… “Fine, kiddo, fine, I… care about you a _little_ , okay? A tiny bit, like this much.” He held up a hand to hold his thumb and finger apart about an inch or two. “I feel bad that I tried to kill you, I shouldn’t have, it was wrong.” Not that he didn’t do wrong things all the time and not feel bad about it but she was a special case because she just was. She’d wormed her way into his cold dead heart somehow and he couldn’t rid himself of that now matter how much he would prefer if he could.

“I knew it!” She jumped up and onto his chair to hug him, even nuzzling his mane. He sighed and tolerated it. It wasn’t _that_ bad… but it didn’t mean he _liked_ it. It made his regret worse though because she was _so_ happy he cared about her after he’d… tried to kill her, more than once too. And in _general,_ she shouldn’t be so happy somebody cared about her, regardless of who they were. _That_ was something she should be used to, not people wanting her dead or not caring if they killed or injured her somehow.

Maybe later he’d offer to try to fix that whole orphan situation of hers. He had the credentials to draft up adoption papers after all. And finding someone who wanted her as a daughter shouldn’t be too hard, she was adorable and sweet after all – though he’d never tell her those things. Heck, if he weren’t against the idea of being a parent, he might’ve offered to take her in himself. No way was _that_ going to happen though.


	2. Here to Stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the long awaited continuation!

“Hey kiddo,” Snatcher said as Hat Kid strolled into the room. He’d invited himself abroad her ship again and had taken his old spot on the edge of the pillow pool.

“Hi,” she said with a smile as she ran up to him, seemingly unsurprised by his presence. “Does this mean you have new contracts for me?” She was _way_ too excited by that thought. … Maybe he could come up with some later, ones that wouldn’t put her in much real danger while still being difficult and therefore apparently exciting and fun to her because she was insane.

“Not right now. I came up here to ask you something.” He’d been thinking about it for the past couple days since their talk and he _may_ have already started preparations to find her good parents. Before he proceeded any further though, he needed to okay it with her.

“Oh.” She was disappointed, of course, why wouldn’t she be? But would she be excited by his proposition? “What is it?”

“As we’ve established, you’re an orphan. Regardless of whether or not your parents are dead or just abandoned you, you’re an orphan either way.” Hopefully it was the former because the latter was more depressing – people who abandoned their own children were a special kind of evil. “I however am a lawyer and thus have the credentials to fix that if you would like me to.”

Hat Kid’s face once again lit up with excitement; good, she _deserved_ loving parents. “Are you saying you want to adopt me?”

Snatcher flinched. “No! I’m _saying_ , I could find you good parents and write up the required legal documents for an adoption.”

“You’d be a good parent though.”

“Uh… kiddo, have you _forgotten_ what I’m like? I’m a bad guy, remember? I eat people’s souls, I tried to kill you _multiple_ times. That ringing any bells in that empty head of yours?”

“So? And you’re not all bad, very few people actually are. I think you’d be a cool dad.”

He scowled at her, crossing his arms in disapproval. “No, I wouldn’t. So, I’m not adopting you are anyone else.”

Her face fell, _almost_ making him feel a little bad. But it was for the best. She’d be better off with almost anyone _other_ than him as a parent. Heck, even the Mafia Boss would probably do a better than Snatcher could. So, it _wasn’t happening_ no matter how sad she looked about it.

“Uh… okay,” she said, seemingly getting over it. “I guess I can’t force you to or anything so…” She shrugged. “I don’t need parents anyway. But thank you for the offer, I appreciate it.” She smiled at him. “But anyway, I’m going to Dead Bird Studios now. The Conductor and DJ Grooves are making _another_ movie together, can you believe it? They agreed to let me play a small side character for a couple scenes. I was just coming in here to get a cool outfit for it.” She turned away from him to skip to her closet and pull something out. “I’ll see you later,” she called as she skipped back out of the room.

Snatcher sighed and slumped back into the corner. There went _that_ idea. That was fine though, he didn’t care. He’d been offering to do a good deed for once on his unlife, if she wanted to reject it, that was on her. She was _clearly_ perfectly capable of taking care of herself anyway so let her. It was none of his business.

“Earlier why was your first assumption that _I_ was going be the one to adopt you?” he found himself asking hours later when Hat Kid returned after she’d told him way more about the directors’ movie than he really cared to know about.

“Well you’re the one who brought it up so why _wouldn’t_ I assume it was you?” she replied, kicking her feet as they dangled over the edge of the pillow pool. She had a point. “I don’t really need parents though so it’s okay.”

He frowned at her. “What about the directors? You seem to like _them_ a lot. One of them could adopt you.”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be adopted by them though. They already got the Conductor’s grandkids to take care and I know from babysitting them that they are _a lot_ of work. _And_ as cute as they are, they like to bite and pull on people’s hair and it hurts. I don’t want to deal with that. Also, DJ Grooves and the Conductor are still trying to figure each other out. They love each other, I _know it_ , they just have to sort it out and then… kiss or do whatever it is adults do when they realize they’re in love. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

Assuming Hat Kid’s assumptions about the directors’ feelings for each other were correct they’re relationship was likely to fall apart and cause trouble for everyone around them so… it was perhaps best they didn’t adopt her. “What about the Walrus Captain?” Snatcher suggested next because he’d _liked_ his idea of finding her a parent; it would’ve been his one good deed of the century. Which would hopefully make up for the fact that he’d tried to kill Hat Kid; an orphan with a tragic backstory who was just happy go lucky because she was a freak. “You like him, right? He’d be a good dad.”

“Yes, but uh…” she grimaced. “I still feel bad about wrecking his ship especially since he _still_ doesn’t know it was me. And if he adopted me, I’d _have_ to tell him and I’m not doing that.”

A chuckle bubbled up in Snatcher. “That was _your_ fault?”

“Wait! You… didn’t know? Uh… nah, of course it wasn’t me.” She put on a forced grin and looked away, making a dismissive gesture with her hand. “I would _never_ try to steer a ship that isn’t mine.”

The chuckle turned into full laughter because it was just too good. The world’s perfect little hero wasn’t actually a hero all the time after all. “Good job kiddo, you destroyed a man’s livelihood and almost killed a whole bunch of people in the process, some of them children so young even _I_ wouldn’t murder them.”

She turned back to face him, scowling. “It’s not funny, don’t laugh. How was I supposed to know that driving a sea ship is so different from driving a space ship? It’s _dumb_ that the boat didn’t have brakes because it _should’ve_. … But uh… I guess braking in the water is different than in space, huh? _Still though_ , I didn’t _mean_ to. It was an accident and I feel really, _really_ bad about it. But… no one died so it’s not _that_ bad, right?”

Snatcher’s chuckles died down. “Some of us did get awful wet though. Turns out that box wasn’t waterproof. And that water’s _real cold_ kid, I _hated_ it.” The fact that they’d crashed into an iceberg made it even worse because ice was the _worst_. Upon escaping the box, magicking himself back to the mainland and then his forest had been a pain.

“Oh… sorry. But… why were you still in the box? I would’ve thought you’d get out once the ship sailed.”

“I only left it at night when almost everyone else was asleep. I didn’t want to deal with having to kill a bunch of people to keep my place on the ship, it would’ve ruined the whole vacation thing.” More like he hadn’t wanted to deal with people _at all_. Living people weren’t his thing and he’d rather not be around them. Why he’d chosen to go on vacation in a cruise ship, he no longer knew.

“Oh well… sorry. But uh… it’s all fixed now, right? Everyone’s okay and the Captain’s got a new boat. So, it’s almost like it never even happened and we can all _pretend_ that it didn’t.”

Snatcher _could_ use that info to blackmail her one day. Though… he wasn’t going to, was he? Because of that whole dumb soft spot thing he had for her that was a like a disease so… “Fine,” he said with a sigh. “I guess the Walrus Captain is off the table then.”

“Yep. I guess there’s Cooking Cat, maybe. But she’s already adopted Mu and I know Mu has to be a handful. _And_ I don’t really know Cooking Cat all that well anyway. She just kind of showed up in my kitchen on the ship a few times to experiment with my stuff. Cooking’s not really my thing so I just left her to it. And uh… that’s _everyone_ off the table because I don’t want to be adopted by anyone I don’t know well because then what would be the point? I _really_ do appreciate that you even thought about it though.” She gave him a sweet smile. “So don’t feel bad about not finding me a parent.”

Snatcher grunted. He didn’t feel bad about that, he didn’t even care. So, he was just going to drop the whole idea.

A few weeks went by that turned into a month and then two. Snatcher came up with more contracts to challenge her with. None of them, though difficult, were terribly dangerous and he _may_ have kept a bit of a closer eye on her than he had before _just_ in case. It wasn’t necessary though, she was just as skilled and nimble as ever, excelling at every challenge presented to her.

None of the rewards he made for her could ever top the shadow puppet – or apparently the bow because she wore it _all_ the time when she wasn’t specifically using any other hat. But they weren’t meant to, he’d probably never be able to make something better. Just like before she was pleased with every reward.

Eventually he started running out of ideas. There were only so many types of physical challenges he could throw her way that didn’t involve someone or something specifically trying to kill her. Maybe he could start coming up with puzzles to challenge her intellect instead. It was certainly something to think about if she stuck around long enough. Speaking of that though…

“How long you planning on staying kiddo,” he asked as she reentered her room after changing into the outfit he’d made for her as a reward for a challenge. It was a version of the cloaks the Subconites wore. He considered infusing it with magic so that when she pulled the hood up, she’d look like a Subconite as well but had decided against it because she’d undoubtedly use it to bother him.

She froze for a second before continuing on her way back towards him, the spring suddenly out of her step. “Uh… I don’t know. Just… however long I end up staying, I guess.” she shrugged before sitting down next to him. “Thank you for the costume, it’s very cute.”

He grunted, unsatisfied with that response. “What was with that response? Why would me asking you how long you’re staying, make you sad?”

“Um… it didn’t make me sad?” Even if her tone hadn’t made it sound like a question, he probably wouldn’t have believed her. She was happy _most_ of the time so when she wasn’t, it was very noticeable and her mood had definitely dropped at the question even if she’d brought it back up. “I just… don’t know when I’m going to go home.”

“And come to think of it, when you first got here and mentioned why it took you so long to come back, you seemed sad then too.” And Snatcher had forgotten to bring it up again until now. “Why is that?”

“Uh… reasons.”

He frowned and crossed his arms. “Something happened at home that delayed you and is the same thing making you not want to go back, right? What is it?” He was curious now.

She frowned right back at him. “And you say you wouldn’t be a good dad.”

“What does that have to do with this? Answer the question.”

“It has _everything_ to do with it. But uh… I guess I can tell you. There’s no real reason _not_ to because even if you wanted to you couldn’t turn me in. Basically, you remember what I told you about the school? They taught me how to fly and stuff. _Well_ , that voyage I went on with my ship when I lost all the Time Pieces here was my final test for graduation and becoming a full pilot. I was supposed to visit three planets, collect stuff from them and go home. Which I _succeeded_ in, this planet ended up being an extra one which I thought would be a good thing. _But_ turns out, they know I lost the Time Pieces. They don’t care that it wasn’t my fault _or_ that I got them all back.”

She sniffled as her eyes filled with unshed tears. “They _failed_ me. And because of that they tried to take my ship away. I stole it back though and ran away. I got away somehow and had to hang low for a while because they’re looking for me. Coming back here was a risk that I _probably_ shouldn’t have taken. But… the planet I was hiding out on didn’t have any intelligent life and everything alive bigger than me saw me as prey and tried to eat me, everything smaller saw me as a predator and ran away so I didn’t even have any animal companions. I was getting _so lonely_ I felt like I was going _insane_. So, I _had_ to come back. Thankfully, it seems to be okay. But that means I’m stuck here for uh… a long time. Leaving would risk their sensors picking up the movement of my ship.”

“What happens if they catch you?” Snatcher asked.

“They’ll take my ship and bring me back home to publicly execute me. They might torture me too if they think I might have any information about their enemies.”

“You’re a _child_ though.” Even when Snatcher had been trying to kill her, he’d meant to do it painlessly. Heck, _rarely_ when he killed someone did he mean for it to be painful. Torture was _not_ his thing, just eating souls.

“It doesn’t matter. I’m a traitor now and all traitors must die. So, if they ever find me and catch me, I’m as good as dead because there’s no way I can fight all of them and win. And it’s _not fair_. I got the Time Pieces _back_ , all of them. Why would they _fail_ me? All I want to do is fly my ship. And it is _mine_ no matter what they say. It’s not fair.” She sniffled again as she looked away.

Snatcher grimaced as he reached out a hand to lightly pat her head in hopes of that being a comforting gesture. “Well… good riddance, I say.” He tried to make his tone light. “They’re clearly all a bunch of corrupt peck-necks. You’re better off without them. And it _is_ your ship, maybe not legally but in this case, who cares about the law?”

“I know but… that place was home and… I spent my whole life there on that station and I worked so hard to get back to it. But now I… I guess I’m homeless, huh? A homeless orphan, the only thing keeping me from basically being the stereotypical protagonist of a kid’s book or game is the fact that I don’t live on the streets stealing from rich people. I have my ship though which… I guess is good enough.” Her less than happy expression said she was lying about it being good enough. So…

“Uh… you can call this planet home if you want,” Snatcher offered.

Her face lit up as she turned her head to look at him. “Really?”

“Yes, really. You’re going to be stuck her for a while anyway while you wait for those assholes to stop looking for you so you might as well.”

“Hmmm… I guess I could find a place to land my ship and live out of it from there for a while. That’d be safer anyway because then they’d have to scan the planet directly in order to find it. Where though? Probably not on the island because I don’t think there’s enough space. _Definitely_ not anywhere near the Metro. The mountains are too mountainous _for sure_. Maybe the desert would be good even if it would be hot so…”

“Kid, I know what you’re leading to,” Snatcher interrupted. “And fine, I’m not going to fight you over it.” Because she’d undoubtedly convince him anyway because she was just _like that_. “Go ahead and land your stupid ship in my forest. That’ll be my good deed for the century, letting a dumb homeless and helpless orphan live in my territory, so don’t expect me to do anything nice for you or anyone else for the next hundred years _at least_.”

Hat Kid giggled. “Okay, thank you.”

Snatcher frowned down the document he’d just finished revising for the fourth time, making sure it was as perfect as it could get. Was he _really_ doing this? _Really_? After he told both himself and Hat Kid in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t? … Yes but… he had an excuse. She was moving into his first meaning he needed to have some level of authority over her and this was the best way to do that because it was the way she was most likely to respect.

Before he could second guess himself any further – which considering what he was doing probably wasn’t a good idea but he was full of not good ideas these days – he teleported onto Hat Kid’s ship again. “Hey kiddo,” he said.

Hat Kid, sorting through her closet jumped and turned to face him. “Hey Snatcher,” she replied, smiling.

“There’s _one_ last thing I need you to do before you park you ship in my forest.” They’d already cleared a space and set up a basic landing platform, the only thing she was waiting was his okay to land. “I need you to fill in your full real name on _this_ document.” He snapped his fingers, making it and a quill appear before.

She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion before looking down at the paper. As she read her expression brightened. When she looked back up at him it was with a large smile. “You’re _adopting me_?”

Snatcher held back a sigh. “Yes but _only_ because if you’re moving into my forest I need to have _some_ authority over you. This is the easiest way to do that.”

“Yeah, _sure_ it is.” She giggled as she picked up the quill to fill in her name in the needed areas. When she was done, she handed both back to him because now it was time to sign it and make it official.

He sighed as he looked it over one last time. Hat Kid had written her name in her native language, meaning he couldn’t read and thus still didn’t know her real name. It didn’t matter though. He signed it at the bottom before he could think too much about it.

“There.” He snapped his fingers as he sent the adoption document to the same sealed, protected, and hidden room he kept the contracts with the Subconites in. “I’m legal guardian now.”

“Thank you!” She ran over and hugged him. He sighed and tolerated it. Just this once though, after this no more hugs. … He was glad she was happy though.


End file.
